SPACE-ISS/CREW TRAINING New ISS crew trains in Russia ahead of September blast-off

Record ID: 144794

  • Title: SPACE-ISS/CREW TRAINING New ISS crew trains in Russia ahead of September blast-off
  • Date: 7th August 2015
  • Summary: STAR CITY, RUSSIA (AUGUST 7, 2015) (REUTERS) ***WARNING CONTAINS FLASH PHOTOGRAPHY*** MEMBERS OF NEW ISS CREW, RUSSIA'S SERGEI VOLKOV, DENMARK'S ANDREAS MOGENSEN AND KAZAKHSTAN'S AIDYN AIMBETOV, WALKING THROUGH STAR CITY COSMONAUTS TRAINING FACILITY VOLKOV, MOGENSEN AND AIMBETOV SITTING DOWN ON STEPS OUTSIDE REPLICA OF SOYUZ SPACE SPACECRAFT (SOUNDBITE) (Russian) RUSSIAN C
  • Embargoed: 22nd August 2015 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Topics: General
  • Reuters ID: LVA5NF8YVI2RE72J0JTA5T4AEKGS
  • Aspect Ratio: 16:9
  • Story Text: Members of the next mission to the International Space Station (ISS) trained in Star City outside Moscow on Friday (August 7).
    The crew, consisting of Russia's Sergei Volkov, Denmark's Andreas Mogensen and Kazakhstan's Aidyn Aimbetov, is due to blast off into space on board a Russian Soyuz spacecraft on September 2 from Baikonur cosmodrome in Kazakhstan.
    The duration of the mission will differ among the crew members.
    "Now we are talking about two missions, we have a short expedition - it is Andreas and Aidyn, and my expedition is half a year long. Of course, during the expedition we will carry out a huge amount of experiments, those in which we participate are the ones for the European Space Agency, Kazakh Space Agency. The Russian (Space) Agency is also taking part. Everything else will be according to plan: docking, arrival of cargo ships, both Russian and foreign ones, space walk," said Sergei Volkov before tests inside replica of Soyuz spacecraft began.
    Kazakh cosmonaut Aidyn Aimbetov will take over British singer Sarah Brightman's seat on a Russian Soyuz capsule.
    In May, Brightman, 54, pulled out of training for a 10-day flight, citing personal family reasons.
    Aimbetov will be part of a three-man Soyuz crew needed to ferry home station commander Gennady Padalka.
    Two other station crew members, NASA's Scott Kelly and the Russian space agency's Mikhail Kornienko, are staying aboard for the station's first year-long increment.
    Aimbetov and Danish astronaut Andreas Mogensen will launch with Volkov and return to Earth about 10 days later with Padalka.
    "We will study communication between crew members of different nationalities and from various countries, their cooperation first on Earth and then during the space flight. All this will be tested in a closed space, during long flights and possibly in the future during interplanetary flights," said Aimbetov before the tests at the Russian Star City training facilities began.
    For the Danish astronaut Andreas Mogensen this 10-day mission will be his first flight into space and the first ever space mission by a Danish astronaut.
    "There are still three weeks until the launch, and it won't feel real I think until I am in the actual rocket strapped into my seat and the rocket is about to fly," said Mogensen.
    The International Space Station, a $100 billion research outpost owned by 15 nations, flies about 260 miles (418 km) above Earth. It is permanently staffed by rotating crews of six astronauts and cosmonauts.
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